Adaptability
by Nygmatech
Summary: There are no stars in Castelia City. N/Cheren


Adaptability

He looks up, and he can only see black.

Well, he'd expected that all along. There are no such things as stars in Castelia City.

He looks down. Continues walking. The streetlights are bathing the alley in shadows, and it gives the rain-splattered pavement an ethereal kind of glow—if he's learned anything, it's that it always rains in Castelia City, and the spattering of the rain might be masking a set of heavy footsteps behind him, but it's okay—Cheren isn't afraid. Cheren is never afraid, not of anything.

He keeps walking, and when he's lying face-down in the gutter with his precious Pokeballs rolling with a _clickclickclick_ from where he's dropped them, he regrets nothing.

The _clickclickclick_ stops, and masked by the _dripdripdrip_ of the rain, he hears a silvery voice that seems far too light to belong to any human as Cheren raises his head in a fit of panic, because even if it hadn't been the rough voice of his attacker, no one should have—

"You should be careful of that," the man before him remarks, lazily tossing the red and white capsule up into the air in a game of catch with himself. "Could be broken," he continues, and Cheren's vision swims before him, and then his head is meeting with the pavement again.

(When he wakes up, he finds that he can't put any pressure on his ankle, and his wallet and Purrloin are missing.)

* * *

It's easy to lose yourself in Castelia City. There are so many people, it's so, so _easy_ to just hide yourself in a crowd and escape any notice whatsoever.

Sometimes Cheren likes to take advantage of this, but really, it was becoming quite an inconvenience, and so he find himself in a little dimly-lit coffee shop in one of the back alleys, because he honestly didn't know how all the others could stand being pressed in by people from all sides at all times, people talking, pushing, yelling, blocking the way and carrying you somewhere you don't know…

There's a man with tea-green hair sitting at the corner stool, looking quite at peace as his mint-coloured eyes turn to Cheren as he raises the paper coffee cup to his lips, and suddenly Cheren can't look away because there's something familiar about this man—

"You dropped this," he says serenely, and as he delicately places the coffee cup back onto the counter, he reaches into an inside pocket of his white shirt, and his long fingernails click against something plastic, before he draws out what looks like a Trainer's Card, and hands it out patiently.

_Of course_, Cheren thinks bitterly as he colours in the face and snatches the card back. It had been missing for—how long? A little over a month? Ever since…

"Thanks," he mutters, and dark blue eyes meet light green. The man smiles easily, and Cheren slips the thin plastic card into his pocket.

Somehow the prospect of crowds isn't as daunting as before.

* * *

"_This's Black. Hey, Cheren, I have a favour to ask you… yeah, can you keep an eye out for someone for me? Long tea-green hair, has a weird cube thing hanging off his belt. Real smooth talker. Remember Team Plasma? Yeah, this guy is apparently their leader… his name? Oh, it's N. Just N._"

Cheren stares down speechlessly at the Xtransciever, and before he has the chance to even collect himself, Black's eyes widened on the screen, and Cheren was faintly aware of a flow of air around his ear and the sound of low chuckling.

A long, pale hand covers his own, and the Xtransciever is snapped shut and plucked out of his hand, tossed carelessly to the side. It clatters along the worn pavement, and Cheren's blue eyes are drawn up as a taller figure shifts slightly so that they're now making eye contact as that same pale, spidery hand flutters up to grip his chin in a surprisingly soft hold.

"I know what you are," the teen breathes stubbornly, even though his heart is beating violently like a caged bird in his chest and he can almost feel the colour rushing to his face.

N smiles, and leans his head in even closer, so that their foreheads are almost touching and the locks of tea-green hair are brushing against Cheren's face.

"Afraid?" the older man asks lightly, and his laugh is like bells and it makes Cheren almost sick to his stomach…

He paints a disgusted look on his face (not all that convincing) before he forefully pulls his chin out of N's grip, and takes a few steps back.

"No," he says defiantly, hand clenching into fists as N's mint green eyes turn indifferent, and his gaze drifts away from Cheren and up to the sky of black _nothing_.

"I can almost see the starts tonight. What a pity."

Cheren decides then that wit would be the best if he ran for it, and N is left in the alley looking mournfully up at the empty sky.

* * *

He doesn't know what makes him go into that coffee shop again, because of _course _the green-haired man would be there, and as expected he _is _there, and as the mint-green eyes raise up from his coffee cup to look into dark blue ones, there's that smile again.

"I'm not afraid of you," Cheren breathes, and there's a little crease in his brow as he stares defiantly at the man. The others in the shop are staring now, but N just easily waves Cheren over, gesturing for him to sit down on the stool next to him.

"Well, that always makes things easier," he says reasonably, as Cheren stares at the seat for a long while before sitting down.

One could say that because he was sixteen he was _naïve_, and would have known far better to stay _away_ from the man, but if there was one thing Cheren was not, it would have been naïve, and anyways, _curiosity_ could easily be substituted for _naivety_—

N smiles pleasantly, and Cheren stares hard back into the older man's face.

_This man is an enemy at heart_, he tells himself as N takes another sip out of the paper coffee cup.

* * *

Cheren had never expected something like this.

He shows up at the Pokemon League, sure. He asks Black to _stop_ N, not get _rid_ of him entirely, but the next thing he knows, Black is telling him that N is _gone_, and he sounds so _happy_, it's utterly _disgusting…_

When he flies back to Castelia City, he feels utterly empty inside, and in the end it doesn't entirely surprise him that there's a red-and-white capsule with his name on it in front of his apartment door, neither that when he clicks it open, a small, purple, cat-like creature materializes in a flash of light.

As is expected, N is never seen again.

* * *

Everything is resolved in the end.

He finds himself outside that dimly-lit coffee shop again, and the _dripdripdrip_ of the rain almost masks the sound of footsteps, but this time Cheren turns around and dark blue meets mint green, but this time it's the mint green that widens and _N_ who has the mind to get away because he's not supposed to _be _here, but there's no escape now because Cheren's gained a few inches by then, and as he advances, N's eyes are weary and _almost_ challenging as he's backed up against the brick wall of the alley.

"Afraid?" Cheren whispers as his arms extend to trap the older, smaller man against the wall, and this time he doesn't pull away.

**A/N: Fairly sure I didn't do either of then justice. :U Oh well, I've only gotten to the fourth gym anyways... must play more...**


End file.
